More information : [SU 41966662] Mansion [GT] (Site of) [SU 41986654] Pillars [GT] [SU 42046660] Pillars [GT] [SU 42006670] Pillars [GT]
The mansion in Hamstead Park was built in 1663 and destroyed by fire in 1718. It had replaced an earlier building, itself apparently a rebuilding, c.1590, of an existing house, and possibly reconstructed c.1620. Some of the cellars and part of the foundations of the later 17thC. house are said to remain below ground, the only remains above are a large walled garden with terraces, and eight pairs of entrance piers, some in the garden wall and some in the park. A ninth pair was removed to serve as an entrance to Benham Park [SU 44 67]. (1,2)
The illustration in the V.C.H., on engraving by Kyp of c1700, shows plainly that the house was centred at SU 4194 6665.
There are no remains of it, and the ground-plan cannot be traced. (3) Park Lane (East Side). Three pairs of gate piers and walls around gardens and terrace at Home Farm. Grade I. (4)
Additional Bibliography. (5-6)
The site was surveyed by RCHME staff during May 1986 at the request of the Berkshire County Planning Department. For further information see report held in archive. (7)
SU 420 666. Hamstead Marshall. St Joseph APs (9), showing site of mansion from N.E. and S.W., held within the site archive miscellanea of the former Medieval Village Research Group, now part of the Archaeological Record collections of the National Monuments Record. (8)
The site of the mansion and formal gardens was seen as cropmarks and earthworks and mapped from good quality air photographs. The garden layout is clearly visible on the photographs and it is possible to identify individual parterres, flower beds and paths.
The precise position of the house was previously known from documentary sources, on the photographs however, all that was visible was a large area of contrasting dark and light soil, presumably formed from the spread of rubble associated with the collapsed building. (Morph No. BE.19.19.1-6) (9)
Earthwork survey. (10)
Listed. (11)
The earliest records of a manor house here date to 1345 when Edward III received it on the death of its former owner, William of Montacute. In 1361 it passed to Edward's daughter, Isabella as a dower house. (12) |